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CHAPTER 16

Feast of the Passover.1Observe the month of Abib* by keeping the Passover of the LORD, your God,a since it was in the month of Abib that the LORD, your God, brought you out of Egypt by night.
2You shall offer the Passover sacrifice from your flock and your herd to the LORD, your God, in the place the LORD will choose as the dwelling place of his name.b3c You shall not eat leavened bread with it. For seven days you shall eat with it only unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, so that you may remember as long as you live the day you left the land of Egypt; for in hurried flight you left the land of Egypt.
4No leaven is to be found with you in all your territory for seven days, and none of the meat which you sacrificed on the evening of the first day shall be kept overnight for the next day.

5You may not sacrifice the Passover in any of the communities which the LORD, your God, gives you;
6only at the place which the LORD, your God, will choose as the dwelling place of his name, and in the evening at sunset, at the very time when you left Egypt, shall you sacrifice the Passover.d7You shall cook and eat it at the place the LORD, your God, will choose; then in the morning you may return to your tents.
8For six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly for the LORD, your God; on that day you shall do no work.e

Feast of Weeks.9f You shall count off seven weeks; begin to count the seven weeks from the day when the sickle is first put to the standing grain.
10You shall then keep the feast of Weeks* for the LORD, your God, and the measure of your own voluntary offering which you will give shall be in proportion to the blessing the LORD, your God, has given you.
11You shall rejoice in the presence of the LORD, your God, together with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, and the Levite within your gates, as well as the resident alien, the orphan, and the widow among you, in the place which the LORD, your God, will choose as the dwelling place of his name.g12Remember that you too were slaves in Egypt, so carry out these statutes carefully.

Feast of Booths.13h You shall celebrate the feast of Booths* for seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and wine press.
14You shall rejoice at your feast,i together with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, and also the Levite, the resident alien, the orphan and the widow within your gates.
15For seven days you shall celebrate this feast for the LORD, your God, in the place which the LORD will choose; since the LORD, your God, has blessed you in all your crops and in all your undertakings, you will be full of joy.

16Three times a year,j then, all your males shall appear before the LORD, your God, in the place which he will choose: at the feast of Unleavened Bread, at the feast of Weeks, and at the feast of Booths. They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed,
17but each with his own gift, in proportion to the blessing which the LORD, your God, has given to you.

Justice.18k In all the communities which the LORD, your God, is giving you, you shall appoint judges and officials throughout your tribes to administer true justice for the people.
19You must not distort justice: you shall not show partiality;l you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes even of the wise and twists the words even of the just.
20Justice, justice alone shall you pursue, so that you may live and possess the land the LORD, your God, is giving you.

Illicit Worship.21m You shall not plant an asherah* of any kind of wood next to the altar of the LORD, your God, which you will build;n22nor shall you erect a sacred pillar, such as the LORD, your God, hates.

* [16:1] Abib: “ear of grain, ripe grain,” the name of the month in which the barley harvest fell, corresponding to our March and April; at a later period this month received the Babylonian name of “Nisan.”

* [16:10] Feast of Weeks: a celebration of the grain harvest, later known as “Pentecost”; cf. Acts 2:1.

* [16:13] Feast of Booths: also called Tabernacles; a harvest festival at the end of the agricultural year. In later times, during the seven days of the feast the Israelites camped in booths made of branches erected on the roofs of their houses or in the streets in commemoration of their wanderings in the wilderness, where they dwelt in such temporary shelters.

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